


Six People Who Push Blaine To Get Back Together With Kurt, Plus One Who Doesn't

by flaming_muse



Category: Glee
Genre: Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-09 14:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3253484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flaming_muse/pseuds/flaming_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Blaine has a lot of people pushing him to reunite with Kurt.  But not everyone does.</p>
<p>starts in the summer after 5x20 (“The Untitled Rachel Berry Project”) and goes through 6x04 (“The Hurt Locker, Part One”), with absolutely no spoilers beyond</p>
            </blockquote>





	Six People Who Push Blaine To Get Back Together With Kurt, Plus One Who Doesn't

1.

“It’s over,” Blaine chokes out as soon as Tina picks up, the words like barbs in his throat, catching in his flesh and cutting him open all over again. He clutches his cell phone against his ear and turns away so that the other people in the coffee shop he’s taken refuge in can’t see his crumpling face, anger warring with desperate heartbreak. “Kurt and I. _We_ ’re over.”

“Oh, Blainey Days, what happened?” Tina asks him, and he wishes so _badly_ that she were there with him. He could use a hug. He could use a friend. Without Kurt, he doesn’t have anyone. He doesn’t have _anything_.

“I don’t know. I mean - “ He clears his throat and wipes the tears from his cheeks. He hates that he’s falling apart in public, but it’s not like he can go back to the apartment, not when Kurt just broke up with him. He doesn’t know where he should go, but he knows he can’t go there, not right now. Later, he’ll have to to get his stuff and make a plan, but not right now. “We’ve been fighting a lot, like before, only worse, and I - he - “

“You guys can get through this,” Tina says. “You just need to talk to each other.”

Blaine shakes his head, his mouth flattening with determination. “No, he - he said he doesn’t want to marry me.” He still can’t believe it. He can’t believe Kurt would _do_ that, end things so completely, betray everything they’ve been to each other. It makes something dark burn deep in his chest, furious and helpless at the same time. How could Kurt _do_ that? “We’re _done_ , Tina,” he says hoarsely. “No amount of talking is going to make it better.”

“You can’t just give up, Blaine,” Tina insists, her voice firm but full of love. “You know how much you love each other.”

“No, I know how much _I_ love _him_ , and he doesn’t feel the same way anymore.” Blaine’s eyes fill up again, his hands starting to shake. This is a nightmare. It’s impossible. It’s the whole world crashing down around him. 

“Blaine - “

Blaine’s throat tightens in panic. It was only a couple of hours ago he’d been planning their _wedding_ , and now he has to plan to _move_. “I need to find somewhere to live. I need to figure out if I can even go back there tonight. I need...” He doesn’t even know what he needs. His whole world has been turned upside-down. Black is white, high is low, the future of sunshine and love he’d planned with Kurt is now a shattered dream he’ll never experience.

“You need to talk to him,” Tina says gently. “He loves you. _I_ know he does.”

Blaine shakes his head, because as much as he wants this all to have been a nightmare springing from too much stress and one of those hot dogs from the corner Kurt always insists will give him food poisoning he knows it’s real. He knows they’re over. He knows they can’t go back.

Kurt doesn’t want him, and Blaine is too betrayed to _want_ to ask him to reconsider. It shouldn’t even have been Kurt’s sole decision at all. They should have talked if they were unhappy and figured out what to do to fix things.

But this is what Kurt does, Blaine knows all too bitterly well: he retreats, he judges, and he thinks he knows best, all of the time.

Well, Blaine is tired of not being consulted. He’s tired of not being listened to. He’s tired of being someone Kurt doesn’t want to have to consider or connect with when Kurt is _all_ Blaine has ever thought or cared about.

No, he might be utterly heartbroken, but Blaine knows for certain that they’re absolutely _over_.

“Tina, please stop,” he replies. “It’s too late for that.”

“But - “

“Going back is not an option anymore.” Blaine focuses on the betrayal and rejection instead of his despair and lets it feed his words. “For either of us.”

 

2.

“Thank you,” Blaine says, carefully gathering up the plastic-wrapped clothes from the dry cleaner’s rack. He checks to be sure none of Kurt clothes got mixed up with his, since even though he only handed over his own claim ticket he knows Mrs. Gonsalves is used to them each picking up for the other.

“Any time, Blaine,” Mrs. Gonsalves replies from behind the register. She shuts the drawer with one hand. “See you next week.”

He smiles at her, sadness pulling at his heart. He’s losing so much. It’s not just Kurt who will be gone from his life when he moves out; it’s everyone in the neighborhood he’d grown to think of as his own not just once but twice. Mr. Ambrose at the deli, who had steered him to that amazing roast beef. Julie at the coffee shop, who gives him an extra shake of cinnamon. Ed, the busker on the corner, who always smiles when Blaine drops a dollar in his accordion box. He is losing all of them, everyone who has made up his life here.

“Actually, Mrs. Gonsalves,” he says, clearing his throat a little, “I’m afraid I won’t be here next week. I’m moving into a different apartment. It’s closer to school, and it’ll be too far to come here. Even though you’ve done an excellent job with my clothes. Thank you.”

“Oh,” she replies with a sad smile of her own. “You and Kurt have been wonderful customers. We will miss you.”

Blaine busies himself with draping the clothes over his arm as he says, “Kurt’s staying here. I’m sure you’ll see him.”

Kurt gets the loft, and the neighborhood, and everything they were supposed to be sharing together, but then Kurt had always thought of them as _his_ , hadn’t he...

Yes, Blaine’s new little room is tiny and in a crowded apartment of NYADA students he doesn’t really know, but at least it will be _his_. He needs things that are his, even if he doesn’t really know how to start finding them.

“You shouldn’t let that one get away,” Mrs. Gonsalves tells him. “He takes beautiful care of his clothes.”

_What about him letting_ me get away? Blaine doesn’t ask. _Shouldn’t someone be saying that to Kurt?_

“He may be good with clothes, but he isn’t so good with hearts,” Blaine says tartly, surprised at himself, and he hurries out into the bleak, lonely New York street with an apologetic wave over his shoulder.

 

3.

“I’m moving home this weekend,” Blaine tells June on the phone. He stares around his cramped little room and wonders how he is going to be able to pack everything up and get it back to Lima. It is a tiny space, but there is so much to move. Books, clothes, bedding, furniture, all of his crushed hopes and dreams... he doesn’t know where to start. The enormity of the task - and of his failure - threatens to choke him, pull him down onto the floor. “I was kicked out of NYADA. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to _me_ ,” June says. “They’re the fools losing out if they can’t forgive a little drama of the heart.” Her tone is breezy, like Blaine hasn’t been spending most of his days curled under the covers, lost in his lonely twin bed. “But you can’t possibly move back to Ohio, Blaine. That’s not your home. New York is. New York is your _destiny_. People with your talent don’t give up.”

“I have to,” he says, barely able to summon enough energy to flinch at the criticism. He doesn’t feel talented. He just feels empty. “I don’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” she tells him sharply. “I know you’ve been having a difficult time without Kurt, but this? To give up everything you and I have worked so hard for?”

Blaine shakes his head. All he wants to do is crawl under the covers again and hide there until everything is over. Only there is no ‘over’. He’s lost Kurt, he’s lost NYADA, he’s lost his New York dream, and as much as all of those parts of his life are over, there’s no avoiding them. There’s no way to escape them. He’s totally and completely trapped in this world he created from not being good enough for any of it.

“Look, this is simple,” June says. “You can find a job in the city and re-apply to NYADA for next year if you feel strongly about your education. I’m sure I can pull some strings. Or else we’ll find you something else to keep you moving forward. Your talent will open doors for you. You don’t have to _leave_ New York.”

“I do,” Blaine says. He doesn’t know what else to do. He can’t stay here and fail again. He has no idea how to succeed at all, not when he’s feeling like this.

June makes a scoffing noise. “That’s just your broken heart talking,” she says. “Although now I can see just exactly how dependent on it you are. Honey, that’s not going to serve you well in life. True artists have to know how to fall out of love as easily as we fall into it.”

Blaine makes a broken sound and covers his eyes. He’s made _such_ a mess of his life.

“I see this calls for a more serious intervention.” June sighs, her tone going brisk. “Fine. I’ll have a talk with Kurt. I’m sure he’ll see reason, we’ll get you boys back together to pull you out of this slump, and then you can prove to me that I didn’t make a mistake plucking you from obscurity and using my influence to introduce you to the world as my protégé.”

Blaine can feel the weight of failure on his shoulders, dragging him down. He curls into himself on the edge of his bed, barely able to keep himself sitting upright.

He wishes he could turn everything around. He wishes her offer would actually _help_ , but even if she could somehow convince Kurt to take him back - Kurt, who always does exactly what he wants; Kurt, who hates her; Kurt, who vehemently doesn’t want _him_ \- Blaine isn’t sure his broken heart could even heal in return. He isn’t sure he even wants it to.

Kurt tossed him aside, tossed everything special about them away, and Blaine might have done the same with his own life but would _never_ have done that to someone he _loved_. Never. And Kurt had with him, like Blaine didn’t matter, like Kurt didn’t think he was important enough to keep.

It’s a soul-deep wound, another horrible weight pulling him down.

Blaine isn’t sure that even if Kurt showed up at his door he could take him back, not knowing that this all could happen again if Kurt’s mood shifted.

It doesn’t matter what June says. It doesn’t matter what Kurt says. Blaine can’t live like that, not being able to trust the man who is supposed to love him, not being able to count on him being there when things get hard. He won’t. Not again.

“No,” he says. He clears his throat and tries to sound firm. “Thank you for everything, but no. I’m leaving. I have to.”

“You’re going to regret this, Blaine,” June says, not a threat but a warning.

“Maybe,” Blaine says. He regrets a lot of things, maybe too many things right now. “But I can’t stay here and keep failing.”

 

4.

“ - and I just don’t know why he would _do_ it. I don’t know why he would say yes and then change his mind like that, without even letting me fix it. Without _us_ trying to fix it, which is what adults are supposed to do, but then he is so fixated on us being kids, even though if anything we actually grew up too fast, and - “ Blaine abruptly realizes he’s been talking about Kurt for way too long, totally dominating the conversation. He rubs the bridge of his nose and gives Dave a weak smile. “I’m so sorry. You don’t want to hear all of this.”

“No, it’s okay,” Dave tells him, and his relaxed posture where he sits on the next bar stool seems to support his words. “I get why you’re upset about how things ended with you and Kurt. I’m happy to be an ear for you if you need to talk about it.”

“That’s really nice of you,” Blaine says, “but I don’t want to ruin your evening.” He gestures at the party of Country Bear Night going on around them. He can’t imagine either of them expected to have an intense conversation about Kurt Hummel when they’d arrived at Scandals.

Dave smiles at him again and shakes his head. “You aren’t ruining anything, Blaine. I’m really glad to catch up with you.” He nods at the bartender, ordering them both another round, and then he turns back to Blaine. “I just wonder if you’ve told all of this to Kurt.”

Blaine finishes the last of his drink and sets his glass down heavily on the bar. “No,” he says firmly.

“Don’t you think he needs to hear it?” Dave asks him. “I remember how you guys looked at each other. I know he cares about you.”

“Maybe,” Blaine says. He stares down at the bar for a moment. He lets his feelings swirl through him, not letting them overwhelm him the way they had but just experiencing them and listening to them the way his therapist has taught him. He still feels sad, he can admit that, but he feels angry more than hurt right now. He feels deeply let down. He feels good that he can see that.

Blaine shakes his head. “He might have cared, but it wasn’t in the way I needed him to.”

Dave watches him for a moment, a surprising amount of concern softening his eyes, and then he just nods. He just accepts it. He just accepts _Blaine_.

“Okay,” he says to Blaine, as simple as that.

 

5.

“What can I get - oh!” The barista behind the counter at the Lima Bean looks up at him with a smile. “Blaine! Hi! I haven’t seen you since you and your boyfriend moved to New York.”

“Yeah,” Blaine says with a self-conscious laugh.

“What was his name?” she asks. “Keith? Kyle?”

“Kurt,” Blaine says, the name still a bitter taste on his tongue, though it’s getting better. He’s moving beyond Kurt, putting his life together again piece by piece. He can see it now, all of the work he’s been doing. It’s paying off. It feels good, even if just saying his name still makes anger and pain swirl deep in his heart.

“Kurt! Right!” She leans her elbow on the register. “Are you here on vacation?”

“Uh - “ Blaine smiles tightly at Chelsea and tries not to let the guilt of his failure at NYADA inside him rise to the surface. No matter the fact of the failures he experienced in New York, he knows now he hadn’t run away but had come back to remember who he was. “No, um, I’m back for good.”

Chelsea’s smile doesn’t waver, even if her eyes flick behind him like she’s looking for his missing other half... not that Kurt is his other half anymore, but Blaine knows she thinks he is. “Oh, well, that’s great. What would you like?”

“A large drip for me, and - “ Blaine closes his eyes for a moment to remember the complicated order. “ - a frozen double-shot latte with hazelnut syrup and whipped cream on top for my, um, friend.” He feels his cheeks warm, because Dave isn’t precisely his boyfriend, but this is definitely a date. Not just a chance to talk, but an actual ‘Would you like to get a cup of coffee with me tomorrow?’ kind of date. Maybe they won’t be only friends for long.

Chelsea’s overly plucked eyebrows rise as she keys in the order. “Sprinkles on that?”

Blaine glances over at where Dave is sitting at one of the tables; he smiles at Blaine warmly when their eyes catch. It’s new and thrilling, weird and yet easy at the same time.

“Yes,” Blaine says.

Scribbling the orders on to two cups, she looks over at Dave, too. “He’s your ‘friend’?”

“Yes,” Blaine says, feelings his cheeks heat even more at the way she stresses the word, like it’s that obvious that something more is going on between them.

“Huh,” she says with a wrinkle in her nose. “I never really saw you with a sprinkles kind of guy.”

“Neither did I,” Blaine admits with a mix of a little wonder and a little self-consciousness as he pulls out some money to pay, “but there’s a lot in my life I didn’t see happening.” He shrugs, the tension in his shoulders at her tone making the gesture feel tight.

She looks over at Dave again. “You and Kurt were really cute.”

“Thank you,” Blaine says, biting off the words, because there’s no point in being rude.

“I’m just saying,” she says more pointedly.

Blaine drops the change in her tip jar, despite being annoyed by her comment. She doesn’t know him. She doesn’t know any of them. He appreciates her good wishes, but who is she to judge?

“Good luck with Mr. Sprinkles,” Chelsea says as she passes the cups over to the barista who will make the drinks. She doesn’t sound all that encouraging.

“Thanks,” Blaine says and tries to figure out just how much he’s supposed to look at Dave while he waits. He doesn’t want to be too creepy by watching him from across the café, but then he doesn’t want to be ignoring him, either. It’s been so long since he’s been on a first date, and with Kurt it had never really felt like something new when they became boyfriends, just what they’d always been but more.

Blaine turns his thoughts away from Kurt and glances over at Dave instead. Dave smiles at him, and Blaine feels himself flush at the open, easy approval he finds there.

It’s a relief that their drinks are ready in a blessedly short amount of time. If this is their first date, he wants to be on it, not standing across the room waiting for it to start.

To his mortification, though, when Blaine picks up the cups he finds that the names written on them in sharpie are ‘Blaine’ and ‘Not Kurt’.

At least, he thinks with a little twist of a smile, he knows Dave will find it funny.

 

6.

“Wait, you’re moving in with Karofsky?” Sam asks, looking up from the stack of towels he just put on the shelf in the McKinley locker room.

“Yes,” Blaine says. He leans his shoulder against the locker beside him, his arms crossed over his chest. There’s something about being at McKinley that sets him on edge, just a little bit. There are so many memories, too much possibility of Kurt being there unexpectedly. Not that it’s a problem seeing him. It’s not a problem at all, because they’re adults. And Blaine’s over him, which is obvious from the request he searched out Sam to make. “I was hoping you’d be able to help me move my things in. I know the Warblers would jump to do it, but as their teacher it doesn’t seem appropriate for me to ask them.”

Sam adjusts the stack on the shelf and says, “Huh.” It sounds thoughtful.

“Am I wrong about that?” Blaine asks, frowning a little. “I know Mr. Schue always wanted us to be really involved in his life, but it always seemed a little weird to me.”

“No, it’s definitely weird to ask your students to move your fabulous gay porno collection or whatever,” Sam says, and Blaine relaxes, because that’s what he thought. Sam picks up another towel. “That wasn’t what I was saying ‘huh’ about.”

“Oh?” Blaine says, side-stepping the topic of pornography entirely, like he’d ever leave out anything so personal to be found by his friends. “Then what?”

“I guess I thought - I mean, you know I’ve got your back a thousand percent, because we’re totally bros even if you blew me off for, like, months when you came home, but now that Kurt’s back in Lima, I guess I thought...” Sam trails off as he takes in Blaine’s face, where the frown has returned in full force.

“Sam, Kurt and I are not getting back together,” Blaine tells him, firm and without doubt. He can’t believe Sam is saying this to him. “It’s not going to happen. It’s never going to happen. We’ve both moved on.”

“Are you totally sure about that?” Sam drops the folded towel on top of the pile. “I mean, I know you’re with Karofsky, which is awesome for you if you’re happy, but it’s you and Kurt, dude. You’re kind of... you and Kurt.” He gestures with one hand, some sort of swirling motion Blaine can’t possibly decode. “And didn’t you say he said he came back for _you_? That’s pretty huge.”

“It doesn’t matter why he came back. I have a new boyfriend, and I’m moving in with him.” Blaine holds his head high and doesn’t look away from Sam’s gaze. He knows what he’s saying is true. “Which I need help with, if you’re willing.”

Sam nods, but he doesn’t look convinced. He toys with the edge of the clipboard beside him. “Yeah, obviously I’ll help. I just... are you sure?”

“About what?” Blaine asks. “Kurt? Dave? Moving in?”

Sam nods again. “Sure. Yeah. All of it.”

Blaine pushes away from the lockers with frustration. “Why does everyone keep asking me if I’m sure?” he snaps. “Do I _look_ like I’m not sure about what I want? I’m an adult. I was engaged. I have a job. I think I get to make my own decisions.”

His eyes widening in surprise, Sam raises his hands up between them. “Yeah, no, totally, of course you do,” he says placatingly. “Don’t give me the angry Anderson eyebrows of doom. I’m on your side. It was just a question.”

“Sorry,” Blaine says a little more gently. He rubs at his eyebrows. They feel normal to him.

He can still feel his temper simmering beneath the surface. He knows what he wants, and it doesn’t have to be Kurt. It isn’t Kurt. He can want other things now.

It doesn’t matter that Kurt said he wants him; Blaine doesn’t have to want him back. Blaine can move on. He can, and he is. Moving in with Dave _shows_ how much he’s moved on.

“It’s cool,” Sam says. “I just want you to be happy, you know? The way you and Kurt used to be.”

“I _am_ happy,” Blaine insists. “And Kurt and I can’t be happy anymore. That’s the whole problem.”

“If you say so,” Sam says slowly, and if he looks unconvinced at least he doesn’t say anything more about it.

 

+1.

Blaine walks out of the auditorium, not quite able to pay attention to where he’s going but comfortable enough at McKinley to find his way to a quiet hallway around the corner. There he leans against the wall and lets out a long breath before he pulls out his phone.

_We aren’t related_ , Blaine texts to Dave and feels another rush of relief at the thought flood through him. Not that it solves all of the problems Sue created for them, but it had been _such_ an uncomfortable night after she’d shown up at dinner. The two of them had awkwardly maneuvered around the apartment like they’d be jolted with electricity if they touched while cooking dinner or getting into bed.

It had been not just uncomfortable but _horrible_ , in fact, and he needs to fix it _immediately_.

He is so glad he talked to Kurt. Of course Sue had made it all up. Of course Kurt was right about that. Of course it was just another of her cruel plots.

Frustration bubbles up in him, lodging directly under his heart and making it burn.

Why can’t Sue and everyone else just leave them alone? Why can’t they just let them move on? It’s what they both want to do. They need to. It’s been hard enough between them without people making it more difficult. It’s nobody’s business but their own.

His jaw tightens at the thought. He’s so _tired_ of everyone having an opinion about it.

_What?_ Dave texts back. _Really??_

_Yes. Kurt said -_ Blaine backspaces over Kurt’s name, then stops himself. Why shouldn’t he mention Kurt? They’re friends. Dave knows that. He supports it. There’s no reason Blaine should hide the fact that they talked.

Besides, with Kurt dating someone else now there’s even _less_ awkwardness in him being friends with his ex-fiancé, right?

He starts the text again. _Yes. Kurt said she’s just trying to ruin our relationship. She made it all up._

Dave’s response is immediate: _Thank god._

Another text follows on its heels: _I’ll see you at home after work? :)_

_Of course_ , Blaine texts back. He isn’t sure how he feels about all of the guys in Dave’s past, but at least they can spend time together again without jumping in revulsion when their arms brush.

_Great!!! Can’t wait. <3_ is Dave’s reply.

Turning his phone over in his hands, Blaine stays where he is against the wall and breathes out, his chin dropping a little.

As exhausting as he finds the thought of fighting against her, he’s relieved about the news of Sue’s machinations being full of lies instead of horrible truths. At least nothing really has changed. Nothing has been ruined. Nothing he has been working so hard to build for himself since he left New York has actually been destroyed.

He tucks his phone away in his pocket with a slow nod.

He just wishes, he thinks as he takes another slow breath and can’t quite make his feet move - the same feet that had propelled him out of the auditorium before he could even think about it - that he felt more relieved than he does about the fact that Kurt is building his own life, too.

He can’t be upset about Kurt dating. He _can’t_ be. If he doesn’t want to think about Kurt smiling at another guy, caring about him, kissing him, moving in with him... well, he can’t imagine anyone feels good about seeing his ex-boyfriend doing that. But he can take a page out of Kurt’s book and be respectful about it. He can be an adult.

He _is_ an adult.

He’s disappointed in himself that the news of Kurt dating is taking him by surprise, an ache deep in his chest in a spot he hadn’t even thought was still there after all that had happened, but he knows it will go away.

After all, he’d known after they broke up that Kurt would find someone else in New York; it had been a given. Kurt is handsome, talented, sexy, funny, tremendously kind when he is in the mood... Blaine had known he’d attract guys like moths to a flame.

Of course he is doing that in Lima, too.

Which is good, Blaine thinks with another nod. Because Blaine wants Kurt to be happy. He really does. Kurt is amazing. Blaine will always love him as a friend, and he wants Kurt to find someone who makes him happy.

Blaine just... wasn’t quite prepared to _see_ it yet, not right in front of his face.

Then again, he hasn’t been prepared for a lot of what’s happened with Kurt this year, he reminds himself. He hadn’t expected the way things had broken apart so completely between them, and once he’d picked himself back up and learned to live again he certainly hadn’t expected Kurt to change his mind so drastically and want to win him back.

Not that Kurt’s pushing him about it. He’s doing the opposite of pushing, really, which is amazing.

Blaine’s chin lifts in realization, his gaze rising from knee-height to the center of the wall opposite him.

Everybody else seems to think they know what Blaine wants, but not Kurt. Kurt - who always thought he knew best, who always had a plan to get what he wanted, who always had a better way than Blaine’s to do things - hasn’t said a single word about his feelings since that first night, and it’s a relief. It’s _refreshing_. It’s freeing to know that he doesn’t have to be weird around Kurt, that he can have a boyfriend and Kurt can see them and be in their apartment and none of it be weird.

(Kurt’s eyes might have gone a tiny bit wide as he took in the decor while Blaine called animal control, but he didn’t say a word. He’d just helped.)

Blaine frowns at one of Sue’s weird anti-PDA posters on the wall and wonders why she thinks she knows better than they do.

They _had_ been good together. They _had_ been happy together. But that’s over.

They’re friends. Blaine has moved on. Kurt has moved on. Blaine has Dave, and Kurt has this new guy, and they’re happy. They’re going to be happy.

Somehow Blaine will figure out what to do about the fact that Dave has dated half of the guys in Lima. Not that there’s anything to be done about it. It’s not like Dave has lived with any of them before, so... that means he feels more strongly about Blaine than he about did all of those big, burly, manly guys with facial hair and bulging muscles and about six inches more height. Doesn’t it?

Blaine’s stomach twists a little, and he shakes his head at himself. He can’t judge Dave for having dated, and if Dave says he likes Blaine, then Blaine has to believe him. He needs to listen to Dave - who is not, thank goodness, his cousin - and he needs to listen to himself. He can do that. He can trust himself to listen to his own feelings about Dave, about Kurt, about everything.

And Kurt is one of the few people who agree with him on that. Kurt somehow is one of the very few people who actually trust him to know his own heart and make his own decisions, even if it isn’t what they might have said they wanted instead.

Blaine pushes himself away from the wall. He’s happy that they can be friends. He’s happy that Kurt isn’t pushing. He’s a little thrown by Kurt’s date, maybe, but he’s happy for him. It’s all working out just the way he wants.

Turning into the main corridor toward the choir room, Blaine’s step falters just for a moment at the sight of Kurt - tall, slim, handsome - at the other end of the hallway, walking away from him like a ghost or a memory.

For a second, Blaine stands there and watches him, watches his familiar form, watches his composed but drawn-in body language, watches this man who had held his heart for so long step further out of reach into a future where they both are finding love in other people.

Blaine can’t quite breathe around the lump of longing and melancholy blocking his throat. He just _feels_ it, that tug of yearning he had thought he was long past.

But it is only for a single, nostalgic, breathtaking second.

And then Blaine forcibly blinks himself back to the present, tears his eyes away from the man who was once everything in his world, and turns toward the courtyard to find Sam and Rachel.

**Author's Note:**

> Reminder: I am spoiler-free! Please don't spoil me for what's coming ahead on the show.


End file.
